Blood from a Stone
by NekoKittyNinja
Summary: "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." ― Mae West
1. Prolog

My life may have been short… but towards the end, it was worth it. All my life I had been casted out as a freak, blamed for my mother's death; I was born like this on a mere accident. Or was it?

My mother was one of the scientists working on the Tesseract with S.H.I.E.L.D., while pregnant with me. During one of the test, the Tesseract unleashed some of its power and hurt her. It was during that doctor's visit that she found out she was pregnant, and put the project on hold to continue it after my birth. She didn't get to live that long… With my birth came complications. When the Tesseract acted up during that test, it infected me with its power, and because of that power she died… My father wanted nothing to do with me or S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact he wanted me killed for the monster I am, but S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened and raised me to control my powers. I made sure I was always in control of my powers, but I never liked how everything can change with a snap of my fingers. The underlying fact that I controlled energy, while everything around me needed it… disturbed me. The Tesseract was my power source; nothing else seemed to work in recharging my 'batteries', but that didn't stop my abilities from controlling other… sources.

S.H.I.E.L.D. H.Q. was the only place I felt safe, even if multiple people come and go. I went on missions and was considered an adequate spy. Just my off put looks made it so I couldn't go under cover. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ugly and I look pretty exotic with my mocha skin and long white hair, but people tend to look at me like a freak or sometimes even scared of me, only because of the softly glowing markings that covered my body. Like a light they flicker and glow, but I try not to let that bother me. I had friends while I live at S.H.I.E.L.D. and hell I even gained more friends, I got to be part of a _team_. One who actually cared about me and I don't have to be worried about hurting them. A team, who like me, have special abilities. We only got to work on a world-saving mission once before I had to leave, and my only regret… is that I didn't get to know them better.


	2. Chapter 1

"I don't know how I feel about testing the Tesseract." I walked beside Clint down the hall, and threw my hands up into the air, a sudden surge of anxiety coursing through my veins. "I mean it's completely unpredictable. Anything could happen!" Clint rolled his eyes.

"It's not like we have a choice, Kida. We must follow Fury's orders. He's probably just as paranoid as you are. That's why he called both of us in on this." I just shrugged in response. No matter how much rational, sensible reasoning came spewed Clint's mouth, the whole notion left me nervous. No one really knew what the Tesseract was, aside from it possessing its own uncontrollable power source. I knew it had no limit and it could kill if it wanted to. My mind running desperate, desolate scenarios, I grabbed his arm and stopped our steadily-paced walk.

"Clint, promise me that you will leave as soon as I say it's not safe. Promise me. I can't lose you… " My voice, usually strong and commanding, cracked with sad uncertainty, "not to this." My hand slid down his arm to grab his, and I gave it a gentle squeeze. He cupped my cheek and rubbed circles across one of my markings.

"I promise." I gave a relived sigh, attempted a small but determined smile, and leaned into the comforting warmth of his calloused hand. I gave his hand another squeeze.

"Good. We need to go." I let go, reluctantly stealing away from the type of tender moment that appeared all too rarely in my line of work. I turned to the door and opened its cold steal frame to find myself in a big, nearly haunting room with the Tesseract inside a metal structure glowing with an almost innocent purity. I closed my eyes and let the gentle waves of power hit me. Even though it allowed me to feel whole again, it also made me weary.

"Dr. Selvig this is Kida." I shook the astrophysics' hand and then proceeded to look over all his gadgets and data while Clint finished talking and found a place to observe from a distance. _Old habits die hard. _I smiled at the thought, and pulled up a chair close to the wall to watch the cube full of energy and anything else suspicious.

All was going well until I felt a power spike. I jerked my head in the Tesseract's direction watching it as it glowed ominously, like it was trying to communicate, or trying transport something. "Doctor, power it down before it stabilizes itself." I briskly walked over one of the main computers to see how much power was behind the spike. _What are you trying to do…? _I crossed my arms and put one of my hands to my chin contemplating on why the Tesseract was 'misbehaving'.

"Kida, it's turning itself back on." I looked at the Tesseract, seeing it glowing brighter than it had when I first got here.

"It's a power source, it never turned off. Call Nick and an evacuation. Everything you do from now on you need to do with care, it doesn't look like it can be contained." I looked up at Clint in his makeshift 'nest'. _This may become too dangerous for anyone else to be here. We'll have to see once Nick gets here._

"Nothing is showing that it's potentially dangerous. That was only one power spike. I don't understand why we need an evacuation." I tapped a part of the computer screen to make it bigger.

"Doctor the whole reason for this session with the Tesseract is to harness it power, you can't do that if it's sending off interference. The Tesseract is going to do something I just don't know what it is. I rather we be careful and get everyone out while we still have a chance." Dr. Selvig looked at me skeptically.

"How do know this?" I traced one of the lines that trailed down my arm. The blue brightened almost to a white until it dimmed back to its original glowing blue.

"Look familiar?" I turned to look at Selvig to see shock on his face. "I have a deep connection with the Tesseract. That's why I'm here I can sense things before they happen when it comes to the Tesseract." I looked back at the Tesseract and then the computer. "I think everything is fine for now, but keep the evacuation going until we get the okay from Nick." I walked around the computers and headed to the Tesseract watching as a scientist probed it.

Nick finally came in and went straight to the doctor asking what was going on. "Where's Barton?"

"You mean the Hawk? He's up in his nest." Selvig pointed up to where Clint had stationed himself. Nick called him down.  
"You know I can see better from afar." I looked back to the scientist probing the cube getting no results.

"I'm sure that's enough, sir. Please, begin packing up your things." I turned my attention back to Nick and Clint.

"It must be the other side…" I nodded my head as I walked over to them.

"The other side?" Nick looked at the both of us skeptically.

"The Tesseract is the doorway to the universe, right? Well the door is open on both sides." They looked at the Cube.

"Kida what do you think?" I crossed my arms and turned to him.

"I…I would have to agree." Not seconds after the Tesseract shot a beam of light down the metal runway that had been previously built for it, blinding everyone in the room. I could feel the rush of power through my veins as the beam pooled itself into a portal. The extra soldiers already heading to a kneeling man left behind by the bright light, gun ready. I side stepped cautiously watching the man's move. The man looked up and smiled once his eyes on the Tesseract, and then he look to the sides seeing the soldiers with their guns. Slowly he stood up.

"Sir! Please put the spear down!" Nick said as I began reading myself for a fight. The man's spear glowed much like the Tesseract and had the same feel to it. The man looked at the spear in his hand, and then pointed it at the soldiers, firing a bolt of energy off, killing men and destroying some of the computers. It knocked the three of us off our feet. Soldiers began firing their guns during his leap, but it proved ineffective as the bullets bounced off his chest by an invisible force. I hopped back on my feet as he stabbed multiple soldiers through their chest. He faced me and went for my chest much like the others. I dodged and tried to go in for a punch only for it to get blocked. We exchanged a few blows only blocking them in return before he kicked me in the chest making me stagger back, leaving myself wide open sprawled on my back. The man's mere aura resonated inside my veins, as if he had harnessed a part of me, as if my very soul recognized itself. The very sensation made my skin crawl. I heard rustling and looked over to find Clint struggling to get back on his feet. That didn't escape the man's attention.

"Clint, leave!" Clint hoisted himself to his feet using a railing, and turned around to face me. The attacker took it to his advantage. In only a few strides he moved in front of Clint. His analytical eyes saw this and tried to throw a punch, strong and nearly barbaric, only for it to get caught.

"You have heart." With that he put his spear above his heart, but instead of stabbing him he did something completely different. The blue light swirled some of its power to the tip entering Clint's body. Dark blue veins trailed up his neck as his eyes turned black, then cleared into an unnatural blue. Clint stopped struggling and put his gun away, then stood straight like a soldier would to his commander. I started to get up but a boot stomped on my stomach. I let out a gasp before latching on to it, trying to pry it off. I heard a chuckle as my eyes traveled from the boot to the man's face taking in his green coat and gold ornaments. His spear was directly above my heart. He smiled as the spear began to glow brighter making my markings, my gift and my curse, do the same. The man's smile dropped and turned to a scowl.

"I can tell you right now, that won't work in your favor, buddy." I smirked back as I began to feel a little stronger, energized even. I went to push his heavy, ornate boot of my stomach, but before I could he swung his spear. A sickening crack resonated through my ears, as the sturdy base of the weapon made contact with the soft of my temple. I felt the air leave my lungs as shocked surged through me, chilling my whole being with a disturbing finality, before my vision dimmed and the world grew still.


	3. Chapter 2

I was jostled awake as my head bounced against cold, hard metal. I looked around with my bleary vision to find the tall, imposing man adorned in brilliant green robes sitting across me with a malicious, heartless smirk painted across his thin, pale face. In the process of trying to shake out of the thick, grey dizziness that had devoured the world around me, I felt the whir of a helicopter above me, the impossibly fast movement of its powerful blades vibrating almost violently in my chest. The perpetually stoic man across from me turned his chilling emerald stare to its hulking metal frame, an air of annoyance emanating from his very being. Squinting, the last bits of drowsiness drifting from my adrenaline-filled consciousness, I could see Nick in the distance, taking aim from the innards of the helicopter. Though he began to shoot, the helicopter was far too unstable and the speeds of the vehicles racing were too high to hit the mysterious man accurately. With a pompous, maniacal laugh, the man raised his body to his full height and turned around quickly, only to shoot a white hot bolt of energy directly at the Helicopter. Hitting it spot on it began spinning out of control, with Nick holding on desperately inside it.

_Nick…_

This seemed to sober me up enough to fight back.

While his tall, slender body was turned away from me, I tackled the man as he chuckled fully at his own delusions of superiority. Before his initial shock wore off, and I lost my edge of surprise, I tried to twist the odd, glimmering weapon out of his hands. This seemed to irritate and disgust him beyond belief as his confident smirk turned into a deep, animalistic snarl. Growling in anger, he shoved me away, nearly sending me flying out of the back of the truck. I grasped desperately at the tailgate, determined to hold on, but as the sinister man advanced towards me, his thin, pale lips curled in a sickeningly menacing smile, I made the decision to let go. Taking a deep breath, mentally urging my muscles to cooperate, I turned and all but dived out of the truck. I held my breath as the slate grey concrete neared closer, and, at the last possible second, tucked my body into a tight bundle. I landed successfully, and after rolling for a few feet, pushed myself up to my feet. Realization washed over me, acidic and hot, as I ran to the helicopter, now reduced to nothing but fire and scrap metal. The bitter stench of iron filled my nostrils. I began to search frantically, but turned around to find Nick just standing there looking in my direction, absolutely silent and stoic as always, though in his eye shown a glimmer of some untold emotion. A relieved expression spread wide across his weary countenance as I approached him. Without hesitation, he cupped my face in his big, calloused hands and brushed back my tangled hair to see if any bruises or cuts marked my mocha skin.

"I don't know what you're looking for. You know you won't find anything." He gave me a fatherly pointed look and a low, quiet grumble emanated from behind his lips as he continued to inspect me.

"I still have to check," he muttered. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, letting him play the role of protective father just a little while longer. He smelled of gasoline, leather, and an extremely faint wisp of cinnamon, which only my sharpened senses seemed to be able to detect. Opening my eyes, I smiled and brushed his hands away from me, raising my eyebrows in playful reassurance, though deepening my tone to convey the seriousness of what I had to say.

"I'm not a child anymore, Nick." I stepped back to survey the destruction around us and sighed. A large weight appeared on my shoulders as my body began to feel labored with anxiety and frustration at the appearance of this new, infuriating turn of events.

"We're gonna need some help with this one," I spoke into the whipping wind before taking one last glance around. The scene was desolate, the property damage alone was massive, and there was no doubt in my mind that a handful of innocent victims had been mercilessly claimed as casualties. I pinched the bridge of my nose between two slender fingers trying to soothe the throbbing that had appeared behind my eyes. I was trying fruitlessly to clear my cluttered mind when I felt the pressure of the warm hand on my shoulder.

"I know." Nick's calm and determined face stared down at me. I looked back at him, nodding in agreement. Before I could attempt to strategize with him about our next course of action concerning the H.Q. and the citizens helplessly trapped in the middle of the fray, my mind flashed back to the man in ornate green and black clothing. His pin-straight-onyx black locks and the haunting coldness of his grey-green eyes stung at my memories.

"Who is he?" Nick's hand fell from my shoulder and he sighed as if the same, impossibly heavy burden that I had felt fully upon my very being had been crushing him for years.

"Loki of Asgard," He began, his words shocking some deep recess of my mind, though I couldn't ascertain why. "Thor's brother." My eyes squinted in confusion as suddenly he turned away from me, his long black coat whipping in the wind, and pulled out a sleek cell phone to call for both a pick-up and a head count. His shoulders sagged slightly as he terminated the conversation quickly. Calls involving civilian deaths were never easy, regardless of how many he'd had to make before. Tucking the phone into one of his many pockets, he turned towards me, his face hard and his mood changed.

"What happened and why is Loki after the Tesseract?" Nick limped around some of the debris, inspecting the damage himself. "You're hurt…" I went to help him, instead he waved me away.

"It's fine, Kida." He urged, a slight grin appearing on his face, "I'm not a kid anymore, either." Amusement sparkled in his deep, chocolate-brown eye as he looked down at me. I shot him back a stern and disapproving look, my jaw tightening at his specific brand of humor, desperately willing myself not to smile. He chuckled fully, his laugh like brilliant firecrackers in the wind, before clearing his throat to continue, "From what I understand, Loki wants the Tesseract to make our world his throne. Something to do with his Daddy not hugging him enough as a kid, I guess." I snorted at this, Nick's sarcastic wit hard to ignore. "Regardless, he says he comes to 'set us free'."

This goal was hardly typical of the 'bad guys' SHIELD regularly dealt with, so the response caught me off guard. I blinked furiously, waiting for some sort of bad punch line that never came.

"From what?" I stammered, utterly confused. A long, still moment passed before with no answer. I stared at him silently urging him to answer me. He stopped circumnavigating the helicopter's ruins and turned around to his full height.

"Our freedom." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Is that a joke, because that doesn't make any sense?" He gave me his 'I'm serious' look. I shrugged and gave out a sigh. "And he took Barton?" I crossed my arms and I looked the opposite way. "We'll definitely need more help." I felt strong arms wrap around me and I turned into the embrace and placed my forehead onto his broad chest.

"I know sweetheart, I know." I wrapped my arms around him and took fistfuls of his jacket in my hands. This all felt like a bad nightmare and Nick was here to wake me up from them like he had when I was a child, but this time it's real and Nick can't wake me up from this one.

The SUV stopped at the docks and Agent Phil Coulson opened my door for me. I stepped out and gave him a smile.

"Thanks Cheese." Coulson gave out a small chuckle.

"Nobody has called me that in a really long time." I just shrugged, thinking back to the hundreds of Coulson's most embarrassing moments that Nick recounted in great detail as I was growing up.

"It's kinda cute. I was just thinking that I should try and bring it back." He shook his head and gave me his signature sheepish grin.

"I'd rather you didn't…" It was my turn to give out a chuckle.

"Whatever you say, Bossman." And I gave him a little salute as Nick came over.

"I need you to get Agent Romanoff on the phone. Tell her drop what she's doing. We need her to go pick up Banner. Then you'll need to go get Stark. I'm sure he'd love to come out and play with the others. I'll personally handle Captain Rodgers, but I'll need you to escort him here." At the mention of the Captain, Coulson seemed to beam at the thought. The adrenaline began to pump through me once again. Strategizing made every inch of my body itch with excitement.

"What can I do?" I blurted out, my eagerness barely containable. Nick seemed to think about it for a while before he replied.

"Get some rest. You're looking a little pale." I sighed as I silently agreed. I had been feeling unusually fatigued after the spikes of energy I had gotten from the Tesseract before I had been ripped away from the vicinity of it. I watched as Nick walked away, his back impossibly straight as he tried to suppress his slight limp. I gave him a little wave, though with his back turned he had no way of noticing. With a sigh, I turned to follow Coulson onto the Helicarrier. _Ooo… the Cap'll have fun with this, _I thought sarcastically as I looked over the edge before we walked inside.

I looked around to see everyone working on tracking Loki and the Cube. Just watching everybody work so hard made me tired. I let out a large yawn, stretching my body upwards, before finding a convenient spot on the railing to sit on, right near Agent Coulson.

"You know Nat is on a mission right? She won't be very happy if you take her out of it if she hasn't finished." Coulson took out his phone and gave it to someone nearby on the Intel team.

"Get me on the closest phone to Agent Romanoff." Coulson turned back to me.

"We don't have much of a choice." The tech returned his phone while bathing him a wealth of information, including Nat's current location and mission intel. From what I could discern from pieces of their hushed conversation, she was currently being held captive by some low-level scumbags somewhere near the Russian border. Together, the two arranged a call to contact the illusive assassin. He put the phone to his ear and as soon as he got an answer he asked to speak to the red headed woman currently in their possession. I almost snorted at the thought. Nat would never _really _be in that position but sometimes she likes to let them think that. It's her way of interrogation. Coulson sighed and waited a moment before speaking.

"You're at 114 Solenski Plaza, 3rdfloor. We have an F22 exactly 8 miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I blow up the block before you can make the lobby." Hearing Coulson threaten the guy so easily made me more than interested. I hung on his words, just trying to imagine the responses on the other end. Coulson had always been nothing more than a friend and mentor to me, though it was intensely invigorating to hear him speak with such dark purpose. I hopped down from my spot on the railing and put my ear up to the phone. Coulson tilted the phone in my direction so I could also hear what was going on. There was some rustling before he spoke again.

"We need you to come in."

"Seriously! I'm in the middle of an interrogation; this moron is giving me everything." Somewhere in the background you could hear the man denying that he didn't give up everything. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now…" Coulson cut in before she got to finish her part of the argument.

"Natasha, Barton's been compromised." There was a slight pause.

"Let me put you on hold…"


	4. Authors note! Sooooooorrrrrryyyyyy!

Hey! I'm back from my almost always procrastination!

I will continue this story no worries... but I do plan on rewriting some of it. I just feel like some things need to change, like the fact that Kida's childhood is a mystery, I mean having Fury as an adoptive father... that has to be interesting. Yes, I do have an ending to this so I really hope to eventually finish this. I haven't gotten very far and I've taken a long time to do this... is kinda pathetic.

Thank you, see you soon... hopefully.


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